BBC gets quack to speculate on mental health of Prime Minister during time of financial crisis *updated*

The Daily Politics show on BBC Two have broadcast an interview with, in their own words, “Psychologist Lucy Beresford [who] tells Daily Politics Gordon Brown is ‘deeply insecure’ and bringing Peter Mandelson back was “Freudian” bordering on “self-mutilating behaviour“.”.  Frankly I was stunned to see this as Psychologists are regulated by the British Psychological Society (BPS) and such public speculation about somebody the Psychologist in question has no personal knowledge of would be strongly frowned upon, in fact if the person was a patient of theirs then such speculation would be forbidden.

So is Lucy Beresford a Psychologist?  Her website describes her as “a writer, psychodynamic psychotherapist, and media commentator” but there is no mention of a professional qualification in psychology.  Unsurprisingly then she is not registered as a member of the BPS, not even on their register of psychotherapists, so she should not be described as a Psychologist.  She is a psychotherapist and she is a member of the UK council for Psychotherapy, an organisation that is one of several voluntary regulatory bodies for psychotherapists, ie it as useful as the Society of Homeopaths in preventing misconduct.   If its members don’t like its regulations then they are free to join another more permissive body.  It is telling that an organisation such as the UK council for Psychotherapy even exists when the BPS are prepared to regulate psychotherapists, despite some qualms:

after many years of thought and work, the Council of the British Psychological Society approved the establishment of a Register of Psychologists Specialising in Psychotherapy, which has now been established. The structure of this Register represents a radical departure from the traditional systems based on adherence to a theoretical position. The new Register is competence led with an emphasis on an evidence and enquiry-based tradition within psychology. To gain entry to the Register an individual must be a Chartered Psychologist.

Given that the financial world is in some turmoil right now which is having knock on effects in the wider economy it beggars belief that the BBC should get somebody who is free from the shackles of competency, responsibility and evidence to speculate on the mental health of the Prime Minister.  Such an act is grossly irresponsible.  This interview has already being seized upon by political blogs (no links – google it if you want) and the speculation of an uninformed, irresponsible quack is being used to challenge the authority of the Prime Minister.   The BBC should be deeply ashamedof itself and a complaint will be submitted.

*Update*

Psychologist is not a protected term so anybody can call themselves one.  However this does not change the fact that the BBC allowed an effectively unregulated quack to speculate on the PM’s purported mental health issues.

*Update 2*

There are some fascinating consequences of this appearance by Ms Beresford and her comments about Gordon Brown in the political blogosphere (google search), including blogs hosted by mainstream newspapers such as The Telegraph and The Independent.  These comments by an unqualified, unprincipled, ex-city trader and literary sex reviewer* are being seized upon by those who object to Gordon Brown and his policies and are being passed off as informed opinion demonstrating a real issue of public concern.  This ignorance and mendacity is typical of the political sphere where personal reputation is as important, if not more so, than ideology and evidence based debate and I have little to say on these blogs other than to observe that politics is just as prone to quackery, cherrypicking and false expertise as the alternative health sector.

However, this does put the BBC in an even worse position.  They have actively promoted and given undue representation to a woman who was falsely represented as a psychologist, she herself makes no such claim, and allowed to make subjective judgements based on no professional expertise about the mental health of the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown.  These subjective judgments of an unqualified individual have then been disseminated, promoted and endorsed by bloggers and I suspect will begin to appear in print editions of newspapers before long.

“A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.” – Mark Twain.

*thanks to The Ministry of Truth & Chris Paul who supply more background on Ms Beresford.

*Update 3*

Well my prediction above has come true.  Unsurprisingly The Daily Mail have now published this story, calling Ms Beresford a ‘psychologist’.

*Update 4*

The BBC have now amended the text beneath the videoclip linked to at the start of this article to “Psychotherapist Lucy Beresford tells Daily Politics Gordon Brown is ‘deeply insecure’ and bringing Peter Mandelson back was “Freudian” bordering on “self-mutilating behaviour”.”.  She is still referred to as a psychologist in the actual clip (although I’m not suggesting the BBC indulge in any more rewriting of history by changing this).  This changes nothing however.  Any person on the street, any journalist, any member of parliament is free to express an opinion on the mental health of the Prime Minister in writing, on the television and in public unless they have professional expertise in the field of mental health. In which case they, in most cases, would be unable to express an opinion publicly. This because with professional expertise comes a professional attitude to ethics. What is most interesting about the BBC is that they felt it necessary to ascribe, by implication, professional qualifications to an opinion of no merit. When you cannot find an expert, make one up. That’s really quite an indictment of journalism.

[BPSDB]